February 10, 2004
UW Business School wins Venture Capital Investment Competition
Five University of Washington students won the western division of the National Venture Capital Investment Competition held last weekend in Boulder, Colo.
The UW Business School’s Center for Technology Entrepreneurship (CTE) sponsored the team of four master’s of business administrations students: Andy Baldridge, Shaun Westfall, Uday Keshavdas and Balu Chenicheri; and Joy Ghosh, a fourth-year UW Medical School and CTE student.
The $5,000 first prize will be used to finance the team’s trip to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in April to participate in the national finals. The UW also won the “entrepreneur’s choice” award (and an extra $1,000) which was given to the team the judges said they would most like to work with. It was the first time in the seven-year history of the competition that a team has won both first prize and the entrepreneur’s choice award.
“The quality and quantity of volunteers and coaches from local venture capital firms was truly amazing and invaluable,” said Suresh Kotha, faculty director of CTE. “In working with local experts and entrepreneurs, students learned the finer points of successfully identifying and mitigating the risks in making investments as well as cultivating their knowledge about the venture capital industry. Their success is a true testament to the involvement of the Seattle entrepreneurial community in CTE.”
The competition required student teams to assume the role of venture capital firms. Each school was given a hypothetical $60-million fund to invest in and had 48 hours to evaluate five bona fide business plans and then decide where to invest their money. They then had to defend their decisions to a judging panel of venture capitalists.
Emer Dooley, faculty adviser to the UW team and lecturer in the school’s management and organization department, said the students’ participation in an extensive weekly coaching program led by Seattle-area venture capitalists and entrepreneurs clearly helped secure the win.
“Students used quantitative skills to evaluate the business plans from financial, operational, marketing, behavioral and strategic angles,” she said. “Qualitative skills were also tested during presentations and the question and answer sessions – from building a rapport with entrepreneurs to confidently presenting and defending strategies to venture capital professionals. Tremendous teamwork was required to handle the workload.”
The UW team competed against University of Southern California; University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, Berkeley; San Diego State University; University of Michigan; and University of Texas, Austin.
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For more information, contact Dooley at (206) 369-7248 or emer@u.washington.edu or Kotha at (206) 543-4466; skotha@u.washington.edu.
